​Last Friday, July the 8th, Dolce & Gabbana presented, in a spectacular fashion, their 2016 alta moda collection in the cobblestoned streets of Naples' historic centre turning via San Gregorio Armeno, the street famous for the Neapolitan nativity crib shops which line it, and piazza San Gaetano into an amazingly picturesque catwalk under the gaze of the guest of honour, Sophia Loren. Here is how Fashionista, the Financial Times, and Il Corriere della Sera described the event followed by three short videos of the parade:

DOLCE & GABBANA TAKES OVER NAPLES FOR A WILD 'ALTA MODA' WEEKENDThe Italian house's answer to couture was inspired by Sophia Loren, who grew up not far from the show's location.

MAURA BRANNIGAN, JUL 12, 2016

Not one month after Dolce & Gabbana staged a celebrity millennial-filled men's show in Milan, the Italian fashion house kicked things up a notch for its Alta Moda show in Naples on Saturday. As Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's answer to couture, the raucous event is known to spare no expense — both in terms of clothing and entertainment. This season's celebration mirrored that of a street festival, not unlike the brand's fall 2016 campaign, which captures local civilians alongside models. For Alta Moda, Dolce & Gabbana took over an entire stretch of the city, incorporating a brass band, fireworks and a gilded velvet bandstand where the evening's guest of honor, Sophia Loren, sat front and center.

Loren has served as a muse to the Italian house for some time now, most recently appearing in the brand's latest fragrance film this past January. But this collection was explicitly inspired by the 81-year-old actress, who grew up not far from Naples and shot many of her classic movies there, as well. Indeed, all 30 of the larger-than-life looks were fit for true Italian diva; each gown, tuxedo and bodice was more elaborately embellished and intricately detailed than the next.

While we weren't there to watch the extravaganza unfold in-person, there was, of course, quite a bit of Instagram footage, thanks to the crowd's many VIP guests. Read on to see all the highlights from Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda show and wild weekend in Naples.

Despite being the third-largest metropolitan area in Italy, with about three million inhabitants and one of the world’s busiest ports, Naples perhaps lacks the fashionable urgency of its urban rivals. Mostly, the city is tarnished by its reputation for social and political violence.

Even today, the southern city must wrestle with the popular culture that defines it. Fans of the elusive novelist Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet understand the town as bestowing on its children a painful life sentence which psychologically imprisons them within the city walls. Fans of the film and now television series Gomorrah will recognise the city as one of infinite corruption and crime.

And yet for all its raggedy grime Naples still radiates a uniquely seductive glamour, luring film directors, artists and writers to its quarters with its labyrinthine geography, lusty temperatures and earthy humour. This weekend, the city chalked up another amore, the design duo Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, who staged their 99-look Alta Moda show on the tiny cobbled streets of the city’s oldest quarter and before an invited audience of clients and editors who were there as their guests.The occasion was designed to coincide with a civic ceremony: the weekend took place as Sophia Loren, the 81-year-old actress and honorary Neapolitan (she was born in Rome and grew up 30 miles or so beyond the city limits) was presented with the keys to the city. The star of a score of Naples-set films and the woman perhaps most responsible for putting the city on the world map (or at least ensuring a few millions eyeballs might swivel in its direction), the actress has as chequered a relationship with her homeland as anyone. In 1982, she served 17 days of a 30-day jail sentence for tax offences committed in 1974. Although she was cleared of all wrongdoing in 2013, after a long legal battle, her visits these days are rare. She had been persuaded to return for this honour, according to Gabbana, on the agreement that their show attend her.

It was a risky destination. The designers ordinarily commandeer exotic, far more exclusive locations to showcase the one-of-a-kind gowns that cost tens of thousands of pounds and are bought by the kind of clients who bring their bodyguards as plus ones. Here the show was set on the street; the catwalk ran down the tiny alleyway of Via San Gregorio Armeno in the city’s artisanal centre before family-owned stores selling nativity sets, painted drums, wooden figurines and other traditional tchotchkes. Chinese clients and Dallas-based billionaires wearing jewel-encrusted gowns and princess tiaras perched on gold-painted chairs, while shopkeepers did a brisk trade in fans, and the street became a mirror of selfies. Locals hung off the surrounding balconies and crowded around guard rails to catch a better view. It was a security nightmare.

“It’s the hardest, most complicated show we have ever undertaken”, explained Dolce as a brass band tuned up alongside him ready to lead the fashion parade. “But power to the people,” he continued. “The street experience is unique, but it made sense to us because this is the street of the artisans. Every family here lives in the culture and is rooted in their trade — just like Alta Moda.”

Of the Neapolitan personality he was effusive: “Napoli is one of the most creative cities on earth,” he insisted. “The people think completely differently, they have another type of brain, they live well. They enjoy their lives. And they don’t want to change. That’s why we wanted to come here.”

Their collection was a paean to the woman of the hour and the city’s diverse heritage — minus the bullet holes: a slim pencil skirt and white bodice opened the show, a look first imagined in The Gold of Naples, Loren’s 1954 film by Vittorio De Sica; fitted dresses with ruched sleeves and flattering hemlines were decorated with roses — Loren’s favourite flower; baroque bejewelled gold capes recalled Saint Januarius, the city’s patron saint; suit jackets were left with dangling threads in honour of its famous tailors; a sky blue silk skirt was embroidered with a washing line of garments; a blousey bodice made in the checks of a pizzeria tablecloth. There were towering gold head pieces, like the religious shrines one sees by the roadside. And a Rum baba hat.

At times the Dolce experience can teeter towards pantomime, the references are so overt and direct. “It’s ironic”, laughed Dolce as he showed off an aqua silk football shirt sequinned with the name Maradona (who played for Napoli in the mid-80s) and the proud number 10. “Our clients want to have a bit of fun. That’s why they come to us.”

And so they do. The clients attending were uniformly dressed in past season’s Dolce, much of which had been purchased, no doubt, at the brand’s Neapolitan pop-up shop. They were a colourful, sparkly lot and this season’s offerings of postcard print needlepoints, gypsy dresses jangling with golden coins, and a souvenir skirt painted with a fishmonger’s catches would not have looked out of place. But there were also serious pieces. A long line black “mama” coat and the hand painted florals that decorated silk dresses and skirts were very sensible, and still very pretty. If the looks were unified by anything it was in their flattering wearability; few designers can project such confidence on a woman as well as Dolce & Gabbana can.
​Ever Italian, a sense of fun was still foremost in everyone’s mind. At the show’s close the guests surged towards awaiting cars and the dinner and dancing ahead. As they picked over the uneven paving in their glittery Cinderella slippers a shower of golden confetti rained down. The gold of Naples, Dolce & Gabbana style. It was impossible not to fall for it.

If you are a celebrity, no visit to via San Gregorio Armeno is complete without a photo of oneself with the figurine depicting you that the local craftsmen are famous for making each year, apart from the usual characters you would expect to see in a Nativity scene, and which are hugely popular with visitors to the street.

The dresses designed by Dolce&Gabbana for their 2016 alta moda collection are, of course, all very beautiful and they all bear the label's signature playful and theatrical aesthetic but there is one "dress" in particular which caught our eye and it's the one in the photo below which is inspired by the beloved patron Saint of Naples, San Gennaro (Saint Januarius). Unlike other Saints, San Gennaro's iconography is not terribly exciting: he is represented unbearded, wearing a bishop's miter and mantle. If you visit the Duomo di Napoli, apart from the magnificent chapel dedicated to the Saint, one can also visit the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro, which is located next to the Duomo. The museum houses hundreds of priceless art works and donations made to the Saint by Popes, Kings, Emperors, aristocrats and ordinary people over seven centuries and one of the items on display is a golden miter studded with 3964 precious stones made in 1713 by goldsmith Matteo Treglia and considered one of the most precious jewels in the world. This particular mitre is the inspiration behind Dolce&Gabbana's remarkable "dress"!

San Gennaro is an utterly fascinating Saint, famous for the alleged miracle of the annual liquefaction of his blood, yet many students have never heard of him! So, if you are curious, click here for the Wikipedia entry dedicated to the Saint and read the extracts and watch the videos we've included below. Buona lettura e buona visione!!!

San Gennaro

Naples'patronSt Januarius-Gens Januaria was his surname; his Christian name may have been Proculus-was a bishop of Benevento, who died in 305 during the persecutions of Diocletian.Sofar, so normal, and the impetuous Neapolitans need more than that togettheir devotion going. A large dollop of legend helps.Gennaro may have been goingto visitafellowChristianin jailin Pozzuoli when hewasarrested and condemnedtopraytopagan idols. When herefused,he may have been sentencedtobe thrown tothewildbeastsin Pozzuoli'samphitheatre,asentencecommutedtoa more humane beheading whentheChristiancommunityrose up enmasse.
​Alternatively (and much more colourfully), the bishop may have been hurled intoafiery furnace (see Giuseppe Rivera'spaintinginthe Duomo) and survived, been hauledinchains fromNolatoPozzuoli(agood4okm/25miles) and thrown to the wild beasts and survived, then declared to possess maglc powersand sentencedtobeheading.Before the sentence was carried out in the Solfatara near Pozzuoli, his
persecutorTimotheus may have been struck blind, and been cured by Gennaro,prompting the spontaneous conversion to Christianity ofsome5,000people.But even martyr-ish derring-do is not sufficient fora superstitiouspeople, obsessedby miraculous happenings. Happily for Gennaro, his blood was scooped upby afar-sighted old woman and, together with hisbody,kept inPozzuoli(or Fuorigrotta) until Bishop Severus had them removed to the Catacombs of San Gennarointhe late fourth or earlyfifth century.Itwas here, local lore relates, that the saint pulled off the trick that endear him deeply and lastingly to the populace:his dessicated blood liquified.

The catacombs becameacentreofgreat devotion andSanGennaro's miraculous remainswerefiercely contested.The DukeofBeneventograbbedthemin831; they
remained in Benevento until 1139,whenthey wereremovedyetagaintoamonastery near Avellino.Rediscoveredin 1480, they werereturnedto the Duomo in Naples in t497.fheucurrenthome-a purpose-built chapelintheDuomo-was createdinthe early 17thcentury.

Since the first documented liquefaction in1389, the saint's blood has bubbled into action three timesayear(onthe Saturday before the first Sunday in May,on 19 September (Gennaro's feastday)and on 16 December, always egged on by near-hysterical crowds. Watcherspray,weep, ululate and grow increasingly frantic if Gennaro looks like letting them down, because the time taken for the blood to liquefy - usually between two minutes and an hour - at the September session is considered a portent of what lies in store for Naples and its citizens over the ensuring 12 months. The longer it takes, the more likely the city is to be stricken by disaster: earthquake, vulcanic eruption, cholera outbreaks, or a disastrous season for its football team.

Time Out Guide: Naples (Penguin Books; 2000)

Saints alive - Blood ritesNaples's former mayor Antonio Bassolino once said that the city's patron saint,SanGennaro, should be called'themayor of saints' becase he had presided over all the city's most important moments. Credited with halting eruptions of Vesuviusandkeeping calamitles, wars and epidemics at bay, San Gennaro has been an integral paft of Neapolitan life, and the object of devotion, downthe ages.TheBourbonsevenawarded him the titleof'captaingeneral' of their army. Naples felt the tumult of the 1960sSecond Vatican Council in averyparticular way: the Council decided to downgrade Gennarotoa local cult, causing an uproar of protestinthe city (graffiti appeared with sloganslike'SanGennaro,futtenne!' (San Gennaro, don't giveadamn about it!).Hewas officially reinstatedtohispositionas patron saintby PopeJohn Paul II in 1980.

​The saint met his glorious end in 305, whenhewas beheadedinthe Solfatara after surviving another gruesome attempt to kill him (various accounts have him thrown to the lions, incinerated inafiery furnace ordraggedin chains fromNolatoPozzuoli). His blood was scooped upbyhis far-sighted nanny Eusebia (other versionsofthe story simply say a pious old woman) and brought to what was to the catacombs of SanGennaro. Aboutacentury later, the first miraculous Iiquefaction of Gennaro's dried blood is said tohavetakenplace, although the first official records of the occurrence date back only as far as 1389.

Gennaro's blood bubbles into action in a Duomo chapel three timesayear:onthe Saturday before the first Sunday in May, on19 September (his feastday)and on 16 December,eachtime egged onbyhysterical crowds.TheSeptember feastdayis arealevent, coveredbynational mediaandattendedbydignitaries.Agroup ofwomencalled theparentidi SanGennaro(relativesof San Gennaro) accompany the rltual with prayers and chants.Theliquefactionissignalled withawhite handkerchief.It usually takes two minutes to anhourfor the bloodtoliquefy, and the amount of time it takes is considered aportentofwhat lies in store for Naples, its citizens and its football teamoverthe following 12 months. The longer it takes, the more likely the cityisto be strickenbydisaster. Thephialsand sumptuous bustofthe saint containing bits of what is said to be his skull are exposed for the eight days following the liquefaction, then lockedawayagain.

The liquefaction of saintly bloodissomething of a Neapolitan theme. Santa Patrizia and San Giovanni Battista both go liquid in San Gregorio Armeno.Andvarious other saints liquefy too, or have liquefiedinthe past. Not for nothingisNaples known as urbs sanguinum (city of blood). Neapolitans are generallypretty sceptical about saintly blood, but there's agreat affection for the rituals. Inanycase, whytake chances? "lt'snot true," they'll tell you. "ButIbelieve it anyway."

Time Out Guide: Naples (Time Out; 2005)

Naples' patron saint: San Gennaro, the Bishop of Benevento, was beheaded in the amphitheatre in Pozzuoli on 19 September 305 during Diocletian's persecutions of the Christians. After the execution his followers collected his blood in two phials. These, it was said, would henceforth determine the Iife of the Neapolitans, for better or for worse.

The Neapolitans made San Gennaro into the most powerful saint in the Catholic church, and they hoped to be rewarded for their devotion. When they had exhausted all possibility of helping themselves, and in every hopeless situation whether financial or personal, great or small, they sought help from San Gennaro. The same holds true today. Whenever SSC Napoli, the local football team, faces a relegation battle supporters cry, "San Gennaro, aiutaci tu!" ("San Gennaro, help us!") - not the usual chant to be heard on stadium terraces.

Good and bad omens: Belief in the saint's powers is directly associated with the two
phials of his blood, kept in the cathedral. On three days a year the blood is said to liquefy. If it fail s to do so it is considered a bad omen for the coming year. The three days when the miracle can occur are 19 September (the day ofthe saint's execution), the Saturday before the first Sunday in May (his birthday), and 16 December.

Proceedings are conducted according to a well-known ritual. When everything is
ready, the cardinal fetches the relic with the holy phials from a safe behind the altar. At this stage of the miracle, the dark substance half-filling the phials is in a solid state. The cardinal then raises the relic repeatedly in the air, in fiont of the congregation, at which point there is a storm of camera flashes and a collective gasp of anticipation.

Anyone who wants to be sure of capturing the moment of liquefaction has to keep the man standing next to the cardinal in view. He is specially chosen from the San Gennaro Committee (consisting of 10 nobles and two representatives of the people). From his gestures and calling, but above all from the cloth in his hand, it is possible for the people to see how the miracle is progressing. Waving the cloth from one side to another, the notary of the miracle cries out to the people: "Il miracolo, il miracolo!", the miracle has taken place. With luck, the substance in the phials is now blood-red and liquid.

At the same time, on a stone in a church in Pozzuoli. said to be the one on which Saint Gennaro was beheaded, a spot of blood takes on a brighter hue. With this, all the conditions are fulfilled to ensure that the next year is one to look forward to with hope.

Perhaps the most dramatic of these liquefactions occurred during the French occupation of Naples in Napoleonic times when a French army general with the
distinctly un-French name of Macdonald went along to witness it. When nothing happened he threatened to shoot the Archbishop and his staff if the blood did not liquefy within 10 minutes. It liquefied there and then. "The benign saint hearing the brutal menace had saved his devoted adherents just in time", reported a staunch believer. "Can one expect a better proof of the validity of the miracle?".In 1980, when the region was hit, by a severe earthquake, the miracle of the blood failed to occur.

Bynine inthemorningthere are about 4000peopleintheNaplesDuomoprayingquietly forSanGennaro'sblood toliquefy. Theanticipationis palpableasthe city's dignitaries and officialsfinally file inafteraprocession up thestreet.This is an occasion wherechurchandstate areknittedtogether,linkedby a marvelthatfirsthappened in1389. The city outside awaits the church'sword.

The crowdisecstatic.Rawgratitude flows. Men cry openly.Womensob andfall to theirknees.A man faints and has to be helpedtohis feetbyhis joyouscompanions.He is giddywitheuphoria. The bellspealoutsideto announce to the city that the miraclehasoccurred.Likeshotsfromamachine gun, firecrackers explode on thefootpath.

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At Italia 500 we've been offering Italian courses, in Sydney, since 1995 and one of the most beautiful aspects of learning Italian is that it opens the door to a culture of unrivalled richness and diversity. In this blog we'll be sharing some of our favourite books, movies, places in Italy to visit, music, links to podcasts, information about local and international Italian themed events, and the odd "personal" view, in the hope that it will encourage you to delve further into a culture which continues to inspire us and millions of people all over the world.